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JULIE ANDREWS by Robert Windeler

JULIE ANDREWS

By

Pub Date: Feb. 19th, 1969
Publisher: Putnam

The author paraphrases Mae West in summing up his Star -- ""goodness had everything to do with it"" ...well, almost, for there seem to be a few sour crumbs in the sugar cookie...very few...like ""an absolute fear of any kind of commitment"" (self-admitted). But otherwise here is Miss Clean, winning smiles, whistling, joshing and joking through the early successes that made her a superstar and the recent flops that have negated her popularity somewhat. There's an early history of Julie as a bucktoothed, bandy legged freak phenomenon in the English Music Halls; notes on her Svengalis -- her stepfather, former husband Tony Walton and current affair Blake Edwards -- and lots and lots of window dressing as co-workers and friends (Andre Previn, Mike Nichols, Carol Burnett et al) rush to gush in a book that shows something of the upper reaches of the Studio stratosphere. She comes off as a ""real trouper,"" 99% pure, a buddy, a brick, but in the words of Christopher Plummer, reading the book is a little like ""being hit over the head every day with a Hallmark card.